DBS Group Holdings, Singapore's biggest bank, has agreed to sell its remaining 9.9 percent stake in the Bank of Philippine Islands for S$850 million ($681 million), a year after it cut its stake by more than a half.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Ltd and Philippines' firm Ayala Corp will buy the stake from DBS, the Singapore lender said in an announcement late on Monday.
DBS Group's move is part of Chief Executive Piyush Gupta's broader strategy to focus on larger, controlling stakes in other lenders and concentrate on its core markets.
Banks around the world have been shedding minority stakes in financial institutions to satisfy Basel III rules that require them to have additional capital buffers.
DBS earlier this year withdrew its bid to buy a controlling stake in Indonesia's sixth-biggest bank PT Bank Danamon after Indonesia's central bank limited single ownership in domestic banks to 40 percent from 99 percent.
DBS said the move "is in line with DBS' focus on its core markets of Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, India and Indonesia."
The Singapore lender is in the race to buy Societe Generale's Asian private bank, which could be sold for $300 million to $600 million, sources have told Reuters earlier.
DBS said the BPI transaction will be completed in two equal tranches, the first by the end of 2013 and the second in the first quarter of 2014.
It will realise a net gain of approximately S$447 million over the carrying value of the investment.
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